


Something On Your Shirt

by HidingintheInkwell



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: 4+1, But Not Much, Dorks in Love, Fluff and Humor, Little bit of angst, M/M, Nose Flicking is totally a form of Flirting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-13 02:33:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29769360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HidingintheInkwell/pseuds/HidingintheInkwell
Summary: What it says on the tin! 4 times Steve pulls this Grade School trick and one time Danny beats him to the punch!
Relationships: Steve McGarrett/Danny "Danno" Williams
Comments: 7
Kudos: 80





	Something On Your Shirt

**Author's Note:**

> Better late than never! Where did February go?! It was Just January 51st!

1\. 

Danny had been ranting on about nothing for a good five minutes before he realized Steve’s eyes weren’t on his face, but rather just below it. “Something I can help you with, Gigantor?” he asked, voice tinged with amusement trying desperately to hide behind exasperation. “Huh?” 

_ And this, ladies and gentlemen, is supposed to be a prime example of American Military Intelligence.  _ Danny rolled his eyes. “My shirt, Steven. You’ve been staring at it the last five minutes and I’m convinced you haven’t heard a thing I’ve said.” 

Steve just shrugged. “It’s not like you can say much I haven’t already heard, Danno. And I think you got something on it.” He pressed a finger to Danny’s chest, warm even through the layers of fabric. Danny groaned. “Are you serious? Gracie gave me this shirt for Father’s Day. I swear if I got some of Kamekona’s toxic shrimp sauce on it and it stains…” He looked down to try and see what Steve was pointing at when the accusing finger suddenly came up, flicking him across the nose and briefly making him go cross eyed. When he could focus again, it was to see Steve grinning at him. It took him a moment to realize he’d just been ‘gotcha’d’ by the giant military robot he called a partner. “You did  _ not _ just pull that on me. What are you, twelve?”

Danny was trying his best to maintain an irritated expression, but when Steve started laughing like the twelve year old he secretly was, the blond found it difficult. “Says the man who fell for it so easily,” Steve replied, still grinning wide. Danny just rolled his eyes. “I am working with a child. An absolute certifiable child. In seriousness, though, is there actually something on my shirt?” Steve shook his head. “No, Danno. You’re good.”

2\. 

Their case had nearly ended in a bloodbath and Danny was  _ very much  _ not in the mood. Rachel had decided to take Grace to England for a month, and while the two of them had been back on cordial speaking terms for a little while, he had not been very happy with the idea of not seeing his baby girl for a month. Rachel had compromised by saying he could have her for almost the whole of Thanksgiving Break, since Stan would be away on business and Rachel had never seen the point in celebrating the American holiday, but his baby girl had been away for nearly three weeks, and their nightly phone calls only went so far. 

His point was, he was already stretched a little thin going into this case, and when you throw in an easy 72 hour run with little to no sleep while they hunt down a serial psychopath who’d been kidnapping men, cutting off one of their fingers, planting those fingerprints at scenes of robberies, and then killing the men and leaving their bodies to be eaten by the local wildlife. Five men had been kidnapped in the week they’d gotten the case, and two bodies had already turned up. The fingerprints of one of the men still missing had turned up at a jewelry store robbery, but the body had yet to turn up so they were holding out hope. 

When the lead had finally broken, they’d tracked it to an old cane sugar processing plant on the north side of the island. They’d gone in hot, their perp had been heavily armed and it had landed one HPD officer in the hospital, one of their victims had nearly gotten caught in the crossfire, and Danny had almost found himself in the bottom of an old metal syrup drum. But the perp was dead, the injured being taken away in ambulances, and Danny was ready to pass out right there on his feet. He felt more than saw his partner come up next to him, in his mind’s eye already seeing himself washing off the last week and then falling into bed to sleep for the next month. Or at least until his monkey was back on American soil. “You okay, Danno?”

Danny nodded, turning to find his partner looking at him funny. “What’s with the face, Steven? Upset that you didn’t get to blow anything up today?” Steve shook his head. “Nah, man. You just seem really out of it.” He paused and shifted on his feet, giving away his exhaustion in a way Danny so rarely saw, what with the man’s seemingly endless supply of energy. “Look, I know Grace is still out of town for a couple more weeks, why don’t you come crash at my place till she gets back. I’ve got beer, football, and a spare bed that is probably a thousand times more comfortable than whatever you’re sleeping on right now.”

Danny could feel a chuckle rising in his throat but swallowed it down, afraid that, in his exhausted state, if he let it loose it would come out hysterical. In that moment, he could feel every scrape and bruise from the last week settling into his bones. “Sure, Steven. Why not.” Steve’s grin wasn’t nearly as blinding as it would normally be, but it was still enough to make Danny feel warm inside, even despite the chill of exhaustion and stress that he hadn’t been able to shake lately. 

He was turning to head back to the car when a hand on his shoulder stopped him. “Hang on a second, Danno.” Steve’s hands were on him, pressing around a spot in the middle of his sternum. “I can’t tell if this is syrup from the tank, or something from that heart attack in a sack you had for lunch…” Danny’s head rolled to where he could blink fuzzily at whatever the taller man was pointing at, but before his vision could even focus that finger was coming up to flick against his nose. 

For a moment Danny was frozen, overworked brain struggling to process what had just happened. Somehow, within the span of five seconds, the man before him had gone from being a composed, concerned, grown adult, to a literal five year old boy. He met Steve’s eye, caught the small, self-satisfied smirk, and with an eyeroll of his own, turned and walked away. He was  _ way  _ too tired to deal with this overgrown child’s shenanigans. 

3\. 

He had Gracie for the weekend, and Steve had offered to take them to the Zoo. Apparently, he had a friend who worked there who’d told him that she could get them into the new butterfly exhibit that wasn’t yet open to the public. “Perfectly safe, Danno,” Steve had assured him whe Danny had (rightfully) questioned why the exhibit was not yet open. “All of the butterflies had been bred here on island, they’re working on acclimating them to humans and they’re still setting up their irrigation and drainage systems, that’s why it’s not yet open to the public, but except for that it’s perfectly fine. Moali said she could get us in when she goes in for feeding time, and her boss agreed that it would be good for the butterflies to interact with a kid, since that’s primarily who's going to be in there. As long as Grace is careful where she steps and isn’t too loud, which we both know won’t be a problem.” 

So with a quick confirmation that yes, Danno, I want Uncle Steve to take us to the zoo, the three of them were off. They fed the giraffes, watched a baby elephant chase its tail for a solid five minutes, Steve told Gracie one of the chimps in the monkey exhibit looked just like her, and they paused outside the jaguar exhibit to eat snow cones before continuing on their way. 

The soon to be Butterflies of The World exhibit was stationed directly past the entrance to the Kid’s Play Park. Entry was a dollar, and for a dollar more you could get a cup of sugar water and play your chances of feeding some of the butterflies. Steve’s friend Moali was waiting for them outside a wooden door marked Employees Only. She was a tiny Native Hawaiian woman, no more than five feet tall and probably a hundred pounds soaked, dressed in the khaki shorts and bright orange Honolulu Zoo uniform they’d seen on other employees. Her red-brown hair was pulled back into a high ponytail and her name tag was shaped like a pale green butterfly. She smiled brightly when she saw them. “Steve! Howzit, brotha? Long time no see!” 

The two embraced in a firm hug before Steve was pulling back. “Too long, Moali, too long. This is my partner Danny, and his daughter Grace.” He gestured to his companions, and the three exchanged a round of handshakes. “This is Moali Kendu. We went to Kukui together. Moali was a UH grad and got her masters in zoology on the mainland before coming back to work for the zoo.”

“Aloha!” Moali greeted before dropping into a crouch in front of Gracie. “So, Grace, your Uncle Steve tells me you’re interested in butterflies, yes?” Gracie nodded, pigtails swinging around her face and making the butterfly clips Danny had put in them flutter like they were readying to take flight. “Well, Grace, I don’t mean to brag, but we have one of the best butterfly exhibits in the  _ world _ , and we need your help to get it ready. Do you think you can do that?” 

His beautiful daughter was practically bouncing up and down as she squealed out a yes, taking Moali’s outstretched hand and letting herself be led through the gate, Danny and Steve following behind. Moali instructed them to wash their hands and leave any loose belongings in the employee lockers before meeting them in front of a textured glass door, beyond which they could see blurry green shapes, and the hint of movement. “Steve probably told you we’re still working out the irrigation system, and we just had an artificial rainstorm, so the ground will be a little muddy in places. The plan is to get a gravel rollout for the pathway, but the shipment got delayed, so just watch out for puddles and I think you folks will be fine. Now, are you ready to see the butterflies?” With a round of excited nods, Moali carefully pushed open the door and led them in. 

****

Danny couldn’t help but smile. His daughter looked like she was in heaven, her face lit up as butterflies of every size and color swarmed around her, landing on her arms, shoulders, dancing around the fake butterflies in her hair. At one point, Moali had produced a spray bottle of sugar water and was using it to fill the giant, artificial flowers that peaked out of the lush greenery. “For some of these plants, it’s the off season for flowering, so we have these plastic flower feeding stations to compensate,” she’d explained, spraying a cluster of buds towering over an array of pointy leaves like a spear. Danny half watched as she finished up, calling Gracie over to her and having her hold out a hand. “Have you ever felt butterfly kisses before, Grace?”

Gracie shook her head no, watching with wide eyes as Moali squeezed a couple of spritz worth of sugar water onto her hand and told her to hold still. Within seconds, she had a handful of butterflies lapping up the liquid in her palm. “Butterflies have tiny little straw-like tongues that suck up nectar like a milkshake,” Moali explained quietly, spraying her own palm and holding it out next to Gracie’s so that some of the hovering butterflies had somewhere to land. “It tickles,” Gracie giggled, looking up to where Danny and Steve were standing and watching. “Danno, look!” she held her hand a little higher, briefly sending the butterflies that had landed on her fluttering before they settled back down, apparently deciding this funny looking flower that moved was still better than any of the other flowers around them. 

“I see, monkey! They seem to really like you, don’t they!” Gracie nodded excitedly, grin showing off a couple missing teeth. Danny fished his phone out of his pocket and snapped off some quick photos, knowing Rachel would kill him if he didn’t send some to her, and thinking some of them would be great on the next Christmas card to his parents. Next to him, Steve shoved his hands in his pockets, the picture of complete ease as he watched the scene play out before him, green eyes reflecting back specks of blues and purples and oranges as the butterflies looped lazily around his head. “Thank you for this,” Danny murmured, keeping his voice low in respect to the atmosphere. Steve’s easy smile widened. “I didn’t do anything, Danno. Moali and I had just happened to cross paths at Liliha and decided to catch up. When I mentioned the fact that I knew a little girl who liked butterflies, she offered up the opportunity.” 

Somehow, Danny didn’t quite believe that story to be 100% true, but he knew better than to push. “Still, though, it’s good to see her this happy. I appreciate it, babe.” Steve tried to shrug off the compliment, but he did throw an arm over Danny’s shoulders. “Say, ah, were you and Moali ever… back in school?” Steve snorted and shook his head. “No, Danno. Moali never dated. We were just friends.” Danny nodded, ignoring the odd feeling in his chest. They watched Gracie with the butterflies for a few more minutes before Danny felt a chuckle rumble across Steve’s arm and looked up to find those eyes on him again. “It looks like Gracie isn’t the only one who's made a friend,” he said, free hand coming up to brush against the V of Danny’s collar, and the blond had to fight back a shiver. Steve’s eyes were soft as he gazed down at the spot on the shorter man’s chest. Trying not to move his head too much, Danny let his eyes drop, catching a glimpse of orange, brown, and black before another finger was coming out of nowhere and flicking his nose. 

He blinked wildly, before a round of giggles reminded him that his daughter and a zookeeper had just watched him get punked by his partner  _ again. _ Gracie was watching him, shoulders shaking with laughter as she used a wet wipe to clean the sticky from her hands, the butterflies snacking from her having gotten bored at some point and flown off. Moali was still crouched, shooting them a curious smile as she tended to the base of the nearest bush. “That’s a kamehameha butterfly,” she told them causally, nodding towards Steve, and Danny turned to see the ex-SEAL with a small brown, orange, and black butterfly perched on his finger. Tiny white dots decorated the creature’s wings as it fluttered contentedly on it’s new perch.

“He likes you, Danno!” Gracie said, and Danny couldn’t tell who exactly she was talking about.

4\. 

Danny should have seen it coming. He  _ really  _ should have seen this one coming, and yet, it  _ still  _ managed to blindside him. He’d been having such a good morning. He’d gotten an extra day with Gracie the day before because Rachel had to go to an emergency meeting with Stan, so even with taking into account seven hours of school, and the amount of sleep beforehand, he had gotten a whole extra eleven hours with his beautiful baby girl who was growing  _ way  _ too fast. He’d dropped her off at school that morning for Rachel to pick her up after, since her’s and Stan’s flight had not gotten in until late and Danny had managed to convince his ex that it would be better for them all to get some proper sleep, and she could resume custody after school. 

The sun was bright, but there was a breeze coming down from Alaska so it was pleasantly cool, and there was a fresh go-cup of coffee and some coco puffs waiting for him on his desk. He should have known this bubble of euphoria wasn’t meant to last. In fact, it burst rather spectacularly around lunch, when something down at the docks exploded with such ferocity that it set off car alarms three miles away. When the fire department was finally able to get the flames under control, and the two dozen dock workers unlucky enough to get caught near the blast had been rushed to the hospital for treatment, Five-0 and HPD were able to go in and check it out. They found two bodies in what had once been a warehouse for storing pineapple that was being prepped for shipment to a canning factory on the mainland, both burned so severely that Max wasn’t completely certain they’d be able to get positive IDs off them. Forensics found what they believed to be the point of detonation, melted plastic housing to what could have been C4 wired into the power box. 

They didn’t even have any suspects. By all appearances it was a completely random, yet well planned bombing. Kono had tracked down the history of the warehouse and it was run by a legitimate, locally owned company, no history of drug or weapons smuggling, no apparent enemies. Everyone was still scratching their heads when yet  _ another  _ bomb went off, this one on the other side of the Island in a factory that manufactures car parts. By the time they got from one explosion site to the other, they found almost the exact same thing: two crispy victims, melted plastic casing wired into the intercom system, and absolutely no connection to the pineapple warehouse. This time, though, they got a small lead. Tire tracks leading away from the factory and in the direction of a disused service road. 

Tracks came back to a truck registered to one Johnathan Mahoney, who’d reported it stolen the day before. Mahoney himself had an alibi, given the fact that he was an 83 year old retired math teacher who, according to his wife, couldn’t even work the microwave. They’d also been entertaining their grandchildren for the week and had been at the airport seeing them off at the time of both the bombings. However, his truck had been stolen from a parking lot that happened to have surveillance cameras, and they caught a glimpse of their suspect. 

Facial rec came back with a Sampson Wergner and a list of prior offences all across the states, including rigged explosions, and a pipe bomb that took out a convenience store in Nevada. He had a warrant out in no less than four other states, and his profile labeled him as some kind of extremist without a cause. Danny chose to label him as a whackjob. An extremely dangerous one with a background in military grade explosives. Wergner had been discharged from the Army five years ago when a botched explosion had taken out a schoolyard full of kids, and he failed the required psych eval following the incident. 

Pulling up Wergner’s purchase history led them to a truly disturbing list of ingredients for not only the two C4 bombs they’d already investigated, but also a dirty bomb powerful enough to set off a city block. They also managed to track down the connection between their suspect and the two prior bombing sites. Wergner had been working for the auto parts factory when he’d been fired under suspicion of stealing. The two bodies found in the building after the explosion had been the coworkers who’d  _ actually  _ been stealing from the company. As for the pineapple warehouse, they’d just been unlucky enough to be chosen as a distraction, the bodies inside a couple of low level thugs who’d beaten Wergner in some poker games. 

“Guys, I think I found his next target.” It was the first decent break they'd had since this whole thing started. Unfortunately, that next site happened to be the storage facility for Queen’s Health Systems, the primary supplier for all of Honolulu’s medical facilities. They were still working on tracking down his reasoning for this hit, but it was on the backburner at the moment as the team sped their way through the streets. But of course, because  _ nothing  _ about this case could be easy for once, they were almost to the storage facility when they got a call from Kono. “Guys, bad news.”

Danny resisted the urge to swear. 

“I’ve been tracking Wergner’s getaway vehicle and he just changed his route. He’s heading North towards the Kalikihali Volcano. That area is mostly mansions, vacation homes and whatnot. With the season we’re in, lots of soft targets right now.” 

Steve had aneurism face again. “What would he be doing up there, Kono?” There was brief silence, and Danny imagined he could hear her fingers tapping away on the board. “Uh oh. Guys, one of Wergner’s old employers owns a mansion up there, one Carl Nixon, Wergner worked for him after being released from the service, but was fired unexpectedly. Not long after that, Wergner’s wife left him, he lost his house, things just went down hill for him. I bet he blames Nixon for all that’s happened to him since. Guys, he’s going to make Nixon pay.”

****

They found the truck a block away from Nixon’s place, abandoned but with traces of fertilizer in the bed and blood on the seats. “Wergner’s injured,” Steve stated. “It must have been sometime during his last rigging. Maybe one of his victims got in a lucky shot, or he decided to stick around and watch and got too close. Either way, this could be an advantage to us. Judging by the amount of blood, it looks serious.” 

Well, Steve wasn’t wrong. Not that Danny would have ever told him that. The smugness would have been unbearable. They found Wergner sitting on top of his bomb in Nixon’s house, one hand on the detonator and the other pressed against a nasty looking gash on his leg. He’d attempted to self-patch it with what looked like a bandana, but his pale complexion and the shakiness in his detonator hand suggested he was about five seconds away from passing out. Nixon himself was no where to be seen, a quick checkin with Kono had told him Nixon and his wife had been on their way back from a shopping trip when they’d been intercepted by HPD and were now safely in protective custody. Apparently, Wergner was planning on waiting until Nixon and his wife got home, and literally set the bomb off in their faces. 

Fortunately, Wergner was unable to get to his intended victims and the case was over rather quickly. Unfortunately _ ,  _ it was over with a quick, rather large  _ bang.  _ Deciding he’d rather die there than be taken alive, Wergner set off his detonator, giving Five-0 and HPD approximately five seconds to duck for the nearest cover and pray to every deity that might be out there. As it would happen, because Danny swore Steve just had  _ that kind _ of luck, apparently the Hawaiian god of explosions decided to bless them. Instead of Wergner’s bomb taking out the entire block and them with it, it only took out the house, leaving them all a little singed and Danny’s ears ringing, but gratefully still intact. 

Choking on smoke and debris, Danny pushed himself to his knees and looked around. Flames licked over what was left of the Nixons’ front door and shattered glass crunched underneath him. Several HPD officers had been knocked unconscious, while others were struggling to right themselves and regain their bearings. “Steve?” Danny coughed, his voice loud over the ringing in his ears. “Steve!” He blinked through the haze, tripping to his feet as he searched for his partner. Where could he have gone? He’d been right beside Danny when the bomb went off, where  _ was he?!  _

_ “Steven!”  _

Something moved, a piece of siding that had been blown off the house. Danny made for it, shoving it out of the way and dropping to his knees. Steve was covered in plaster dust, turning a dark red from a nasty cut on his temple. He was still.  _ So  _ still… “Steve? Come on, babe, open those eyes and look at me.” He pressed his fingers to the brunet’s neck, relieved to feel a steady pulse thrumming against his fingers, and the groan that followed was the sweetest thing he’d heard since Gracie’s first cries. “D’nny?” Foggy green eyes blinked up at him, and Danny felt like his grin was going to split his face in half. “Why is it,” he stated, helping his partner into a sitting position, “that everytime I go anywhere with you, something blows up?” The chuckle he received was rough and ended in a cough, but Steve was alive, he was conscious, and he was in one piece. 

“Everyone okay? Anyone else hurt?” 

Danny shook his head. “No, ah, everyone made it out in one piece. Looks like Wergner was our only casualty. Such a great, tragic loss.” The sarcasm dripping from his voice earned him another chuckle before he found himself trapped by those green eyes again. “What about you, Danno, you okay?”

Danny tossed up a hand, the other reluctant to leave it’s place on Steve’s back. “Am I okay? Am I okay, he asks! Oh, you know, I’m just peachy. Tracked a psychopath across the island, almost got blown up by a bomb, why wouldn’t I be okay?” Steve was smiling through Danny’s little mini rant, but his eyes had fallen from the blond’s face. “Glad to hear it, Danno, but it looks like you got a little somethin’...” When the finger went from his shirt to brush his nose, Danny couldn’t even find it in him to be mad that his giant, idiotic, absolute doofus of a partner chose one of the most inappropriate times to pull his little joke. He was just glad that Steve was around to pull it. 

+1. 

They were having a rare day off, and Steve had invited them all over for a barbecue. Kono had Gracie out on the water taking her for a ride on her board while Chin helped Steve man the grill. Danny was relaxing back in one of the adirondacks nursing a beer as he watched his daughter stand up on the board in front of Kono. It had been a little over two weeks since their case with Wergner had literally blown up in their faces, and if Danny looked close enough he could still see the healing yellow green of the bruises across Steve’s arms and the side of his face where he’d hit the pavement. Doctors had cleared him with a minor concussion and some bruised ribs, all of which had cleared up within a few days and Steve had gone back to his building jumping, crazy ninja self. 

Luckily for Danny’s bloodpressure, the cases they’d had since had all been pretty cut and dry. A couple drug busts, a missing person’s case that wound up being just a drunk tourist crashing in a hotel room that wasn’t their own on the wrong side of the island. A graciously easy couple weeks after the hellish ones they’d been dealing with lately. “Yo, Danno! Burger or dog, brah?” 

Danny let his head tilt back so he could look at an upside down Steve standing behind him. “Burger, please, babe. And throw on another for Gracie, would you?” Steve nodded, easy smile on his face as he turned back to throw some more burgers and dogs on the grill. Danny felt something near his heart flutter at how relaxed the other man looked. It was a feeling he’d come to acknowledge and accept in the past few weeks. Looking back, he knew it spanned a lot longer than that, he’d just been too stubborn to realize. 

He didn’t realize his eyes had drifted closed until something wet and bony landed on his lap with a squeal. “Danno! Wake up! Uncle Steve says dinner is ready!” Danny squinted open his eyes to see the beautiful, smiling face of his daughter, her skin pink from the sun and sparking with the seawater clinging to her. “Ah, well then, if Uncle Steve says so, then I guess we’d better go get out plates before everyone eats it all!” With a quiet grunt, Danny stood, swinging Gracie up with him as she squealed again, clinging to him like her nickname-sake. Holding her under his arm like a sack of potatoes, he shuffled in the direction of the grill, knowing that the day was quickly approaching when she’d be too big for him to haul her around, and choosing to relish it while he could. 

He set her down in front of the grill, where Steve was waiting with a plate loaded down with a burger, dog, and a healthy scoop of potato salad. Handing it over to Gracie, with one hand, he produced a soda from behind his back with the other. “Your order, Miss Grace,” he said with a light bow, getting a giggle from Gracie as she took her food. “Thank you, Uncle Steve!”

When she had gone to find a spot on the deck to eat her food, Steve produced two more similarly ladened plates, handing one over to Danny before grabbing a couple beers in his freed hand and leading Danny back over to the deck chairs. The two of them ate in silence, Danny swapping his focus back and forth from where Gracie and Kono sat on the deck eating and sharing stories, to Chin leaning against the railing staring out towards the lowering sunset, and finally coming to rest on the dark haired man next to him. Steve had finished his food quickly, plate abandoned on the ground next to him as he nursed the rest of his beer. He was laughing at something Kono had said, looking more at ease than he had in a long time, and Danny couldn’t help but think that it was a good look on him. 

By the time Danny had finished, Steve was already up, first beer finished and a second perched next to him as he cleaned the grill. Kono and Chin were down near the beach with Gracie, tossing a frisbee between the three of them, the sunset painting colors across their skin and giving them halos. Tossing his empty plate in the trash bag, Danny took one more swig of his beer before walking up to stand by Steve. “Sup, Danno? Shouldn’t you be down there helping Gracie beat the cousins?” 

Danny smiled, watching the way the pinks and oranges turned the brunet’s eyes into emeralds. “Yeah, well, she seems to be holding her own pretty well, and besides it would be rude to leave the host with all the cleanup. My ma would kill me if I didn’t at least offer my assistance.” Steve snorted, setting the grill brush to the side and picking up his beer. “You can assure your mom that you did indeed live up to her expectations. Fortunately for you, I’m mostly done, so unless you wanna take the trash to the bin, which  _ my  _ mother would never let me get away with, I say grab yourself another beer and go join your daughter.” 

Steve’s smile was easy and relaxed, his throat bobbing as he took another swig, and Danny told himself it was now or never. “I never thought I’d have to tell a grown man this, but you my friend, need a bib.” Steve almost snorted his beer. “Excuse me? What do you mean, I need a bib?” 

Danny gestured towards the shirt the taller man was wearing, pressing a finger to a spot just below his collarbone. “You’re an animal! Look at this, you’ve got mustard all over you. How did you manage this? What are you, five? No, I take that back, a five year old can eat and make less mess than you.” 

Steve’s smile was indulgent as he watched Danny rant, tilting his head to try and find the spot Danny was talking about, and that’s when Danny made his move. Stepping in close, he rose up on his tiptoes and pressed his lips to Steve’s grin, feeling the other man freeze briefly before Danny felt the grin widen and his kiss was being returned, strong arms coming up to wrap around him and pull him closer. 

Danny was lost in the kiss, the feel of Steve’s warm, slightly chapped lips and the taste of smoke and beer, when the sounds of cheering brought him out of his haze. He pulled back far enough to look Steve in the face, the dazed, soft look sending his heart fluttering before he turned to look at where their audience had paused their game to watch. There was money changing hands between the cousins, which he chose to ignore, and Gracie had a grin big enough to split her face in half as she bounced up and down in excitement. Danny could hear her squeals of joy from where he stood, still wrapped up in Steve’s arms, and he felt his own lips tugging into a matching smile. Steve’s chuckle rumbled through his chest as he pressed another kiss to the top of Danny’s head. “Took you long enough, Danno,” he mumbled, and Danny let a chuckle of his own run through him, his head tilting forward to nestle under his taller partner’s chin. “Yeah, well, when your partner has the romantic tact of a ten year old boy, I think I can be allowed to be a little slow on the uptake. The point is, I caught on eventually, and Gracie obviously approves, so in the end I’d say it was worth it.”

“Yeah, Danno.  _ Definitely  _ worth it.”

~END~

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Hoped you loved! Kudos and Comments are my bread and butter!  
> Thx for reading!!!!! XOOX  
> -HidingintheInkwell


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